After an eight-month search, The New York Times tapped one of Britain’s most highly paid public officials, BBC Director General Mark Thompson, to fill its vacant CEO slot. He will also get a seat on the board.

Thompson, 55, takes over the reins after longtime chief Janet Robinson was fired in December for failing to turn around the company and tangling with members of the controlling Ochs-Sulzberger family. Her $24 million exit package also angered the rank and file, accounting for nearly half the company’s profits in 2011.

Thompson, who earned $1.25 million a year at the BBC, faces a tough slog in trying to revive the newspaper publisher as it struggles to build its digital properties and cope with falling print advertising.

“The challenge is international expansion, what’s the right balance across platforms for print and digital news, and how much of those decisions will be his versus the Sulzbergers,’” said UBS analyst John Janedis.

When he starts in November, Thompson will inherit a slimmed-down company that has been selling assets to pay down debt, including a chain of regional newspapers, the website About.com, its stake in the Boston Red Sox and its Midtown headquarters.

The company, which still owns The Boston Globe, reported a loss of $88.1 million in the three months ended in June, including a $126 million charge to write down the value of About.com.

Thompson, who has strong news credentials but little print experience, beat out other candidates, who were said to include former Wall Street Journal Publisher Gordon Crovitz and top Google exec Eileen Naughton.